A chord progression is a pattern of three or four chords that are repeated throughout a song.

There are some chord progressions that are used in songs over and over again. Sometimes as they are, sometimes in combos with each other and sometimes with slight alternations to make things interesting.

Some songs switch back and forth from different chords for the verse and chorus. Other songs use a single chord progression all through.

Learning them will allow you to pick them up whenever you hear a song. It will also help you to write songs that are unique.

Note that the Nashville Number System is used to talk about chord progressions. In the system, each note in the scale is given a number one through seven and they are written in Roman numerals.

Here are some of them:

I-vi-IV-V

This was popular in the 50s and is usually called the 50s progression. It is still used in modern times as you will find it in Justin Bieber’s “Baby” or Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls”.